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Meet Pat McDonald. Featured Author #1.

I am very excited to let you know that I will be featuring talented authors on my blog going forward. This is something I have been wanting to do for awhile now, but had to put it off due to other priorities. Not that it’s getting any better now, but I figured I can’t push it out forever. So, each week we will hear from authors from around the globe about their writing journey and what inspires them.

Without further ado, I give you this week’s featured author, Pat McDonald from the Great Britain. 

 

Tell us a little about yourself—don’t’ be shy!

I am British Crime author Pat McDonald, I live in a rural part of the Midlands, United Kingdom. I previously worked as a researcher, project manager and programme manager in the National Health Service and in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. I have been a full time novelist since 2013 and published eight novels.

 

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There are so many things one could do. Why write?

After a lengthy career as a researcher it was time to express my acquired knowledge in a different way. I have spent my working career writing all kinds of formal and academic reports, papers, books, and sundry procedural documents on many subjects promising myself that one day I would write fiction which I have always wanted to do. I can only describe it as an ‘itch’ that I cannot scratch. Writing and reading are my prime focus and it is something that I need to do. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner, however, I have achieved a great many other things along the way and can say, hand on heart, that I am proud of most of them.

 

Publishing can be a daunting process. Do you have moments of doubt? If so, how do you stay motivated?

As a writer I have no difficulties in staying motivated because it is something I like doing, something I have to do and do it every day. Only ill health has taken me away from my routines, although it is writing that has helped me through the most recent and serious of times. Every writer has doubts I imagine even the most successful ones. My biggest being at the outset and learning how to be an author, accepting the role, being able to admit ‘I am a writer’ is something I had to grow into. The biggest challenge of all comes when you open up the office door and allow someone else to read your work.

In the beginning I had no idea how to become published because since the days when you were given a contract to write a book, with an advance on royalties the whole publishing world has changed. Yes publishing is daunting but these days there are far more opportunities than years ago to see your work in print. I was lucky in that I wrote to two publishers outlining my first book, one e mailed back to say it wasn’t their type of genre, the other asked me to submit 30 pages for a free critique. I seriously wanted to learn what I might need to do to improve and be given advice. I got an offer back instead and so began the publishing process. It’s long, it’s arduous and sometimes a painful process, but after five books I began to enjoy it! It even became therapeutic when after a major op I couldn’t write or type, I used it during the recovery process.

 

What about your latest book—what can readers look forward to when they pick it up?

My latest two books, published a few months apart are totally different. When I was diagnosed with a brain tumour three years ago I began to write my humorous series to help to keep my spirits up during the long recovery process after surgery (carrying on recently because it grew back and I had to have other treatment). My latest book A Bad Penny is Bk3 in that series (A Penny for Them Bk1 and The Penny Drops Bk2). The Penny series follows the extraordinary life of Benjamin Matthews who up until his 31st birthday led quite an ordinary life; he tells one white lie which sets him off on a series of unfortunate incidents and discoveries about himself. A Bad Penny sees him living out in United Arab Emirates with his family trying to avoid an amorous undercover police officer who took a shine to him and tried to separate him from his family. But then nothing ever goes smoothly for Ben.

The other book Echoes of Doubt takes a character from my first trilogy (The Blue Woods trilogy) and who disappeared into the Witness Protection Programme to escape from some ruthless criminals. He changes his name to Cyrus Bartholomew and buys a clock shop in a sleepy seaside town. After two years of hiding, his next door neighbour at the Art Gallery is brutally murdered in his bed which sets him off wondering if the perpetrator mistook the Gallery for Time and Tide his clock shop. I wrote this book because I liked this odd character and also because strange things were happening to me at home, so I wrote them into the plot. I would invite a reader to guess which ones.

 

If one of your books were to be optioned for a movie, who would you hope would play your lead character?

One or two people have mentioned that the Penny series should be made into a comedy series and because Ben has the face of an angel, one that most people find able to trust, I visualized him as someone like Elijah Wood (Frodo Baggins) with big eyes and an innocent face. Having said that how I visualize one of my characters isn’t necessarily how a reader would see them. I only had one trailer done for ‘Getting Even: Revenge is best served cold’ my first book and because my publishers are in America and my crime books are about British cops they picked people that I wouldn’t have chosen including US cops! It would be difficult to watch someone else’s interpretation of your characters I imagine.

 

Who are your three favorite writers and why?

I was weaned on classic books like Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Austin, Bronte, Dumas etc. When I joined my first book club at fifteen I moved on to more modern authors. Of note I would have to say Stephen King has been the biggest influence because of his imagination, his vivid prose and exquisite style. I have just begun to catch up with his latest work. My tastes are wide and meeting a great number of new authors since joining social networking I have connected with many authors and now read/review a variety of books that catch my eye.

My interest in humour has been fueled by Ian Hutson and Aaron David both of whom are incredibly funny and they have influenced me to dabble in humour. Ian Hutson’s photography at the seaside down of Mablethorpe inspired me to place my character in an imaginary seaside town.

I still have a problem with fantasy or what I call ‘high fantasy’ because it is so far removed from my own gritty realism. However I have dipped into Frank Herbert’s Dune for the first time and now read all of his books, which has sparked an interest in Science Fiction. James Dashner’s Maze Runner series is far better than the movie versions.

There are too many books and too little time.

 

If you could be any character from a movie or a book, who would you be?

My problem with this question is that all the characters I would want to be are men! I just watched The Dark Tower (Stephen Kings 7 book epic, which I have and read the first six) with Idris Elba as The Gunslinger, a really cool dude. He has taken the edge off Keanu Reeves as John Wick and I can honestly say I do not know why they appeal to me as I am not one bit tough or aggressive. But the wilting damsel I am not! But then Frank Westworth’s character JJ Stoner the assassin with his Harley Davidson is another one.

I don’t think they quite knock Rutger Hauer in Blade runner off the top spot though. “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.” That’s classic.

 

 When you are not writing, what’s your favorite way to spend time?

Reading what other people have written and watching films and some crime/thriller dramas.

 

 What is the best way to connect with you?

Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/Pat-Mcdonald-502374626484358/?ref=bookmarks

Twitter: https://twitter.com/issyblack

 Amazon page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pat-McDonald/e/B00R372WK4/ref=la_B00R372WK4_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1525946357&sr=1-1

 

Thank you, Pat! You can never go wrong with the Gunslinger, great choice! Your comment about the real challenge of opening your door and allowing someone else to read your work hit close to home for me too. Thank you for spending time with us today and giving us a peek into your beautiful world. Wishing you every success with your new releases.

If you have comments and suggestions about featured author segment, please let us know below. If there is an author you would like us to feature, do let us know as well.

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Next week, we will be back with another talented author. Until then, keep reading. I will leave you with this quote to muse on.

“A little talent is a good thing if you want to be a writer. But the only real requirement is the ability to remember every scar.” ~ Stephen King. 

Book Review: Line of Vision by David Ellis

What’s Good:

Once the trial started, I couldn’t put the book down. I woke up all night to finish it. Very well written courtroom drama. I don’t read a lot of legal thrillers these days, so this was refreshing.

The synopsis on the back cover, and the first ten pages were very intriguing. The reason why I bought the book in the first place.

What’s Ok:

The pace of the story came to a grinding halt after first fifty pages or so. It was so slow that I thought about giving up on the book more than one time. There were glimmer of interesting bits, but too few and too far between. By then, however, I was deep into the story to back out. And I was glad I stayed.

The ending wasn’t a big surprise either. I certainly didn’t know how things would eventually unravel, but I had a pretty good idea about who was behind it all. I kept thinking it couldn’t be that simple. What could be the twist, I wondered. There were revelations in the end that clarified a few things, but I wouldn’t call them a twist. More like explanations to tie everything together.

To be fair though, I was reading this as a mystery/thriller. Perhaps, it was intended just as a thriller, not a mystery. If so, misplaced expectation on my end.

What’s Bad:

Nothing.

Overall:

Check out my Goodreads profile here to see how many stars I gave this book.

 

What do you think? Do you agree with my review? Comment below and do not forget to subscribe for more updates, promotions and new releases.

 

Book Review: Watch Me Disappear

This book was one interesting roller coaster ride. I was pulled in from the start, but I soon started to get a sense of how this would end. Then after reading later chapters, I changed my mind. At that point, I was quite convinced that my first guess was a bust. Then, the shocking epilogue revealed that my initial guess was right. The story was pretty simple, but the brilliance comes from the fact that the book successfully convinced me otherwise, that no this was a complex story. Once I believed it was a complex story, the simple ending was just as much of a shock. This book would have been a 2-star for me if it wasn’t for the ending. It showed me how important it was to finish strong.

Visit my Goodreads profile here to see my rating.

For Non-Native Writers: Top Five Challenges To Overcome.

Below are the top five challenges I have had to overcome in my journey as a non-native writer. 

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Check out the cover reveal of my upcoming novel, Please Disappear, here.

1.     Self-doubt 

Self-doubt can creep up in any creative person’s mind. Whether wondering if you are good enough, or if anyone will care about your work, or dreading if you can repeat past success, self-doubt can take many forms.

If you write, or are considering writing in a non-native language, there may be additional qualms. First of all, the term non-native itself can make you feel as though odds are stacked against you. There are the usual challenges associated with starting a career as a writer, publishing a book, or whatever your writing goal maybe. But non-native writers have additional language-specific hurdles to overcome as well.

Let’s say you are writing in English and describing things that are happening at night and in the morning. For native writers, referring to different times of day using two different prepositions, at and in, may be intuitive. But for non-native writers, this seemingly simple matter can feel daunting and confusing, especially if their native language uses the same preposition or no preposition to refer to any time of day.

Solution: Understand that you are not alone. I, and probably many other non-native writers, go through this too. That does not mean you cannot be successful. Here are some very successful writers who write or wrote in a non-native language.

Focus on your writing, your story. Use your perceived disadvantage to your benefit. Non-native writers bring perspectives that are alien to native writers. You have a genuine story to tell, find that story within yourself and write.

You are not the first person to suffer from self-doubt, so relax. Don’t let it define who you are. Self-doubt is like a mirage—it will exist as long as you stay away from it; get closer, understand your self-doubt, and it will vanish swiftly.

Always remember you are a writer and a storyteller. The fact that you write in a non-native language is a tertiary matter.

 

2.     Getting Stuck in the First Draft 

You overcame your self-doubt and are now writing your first draft. Let’s again assume that the first sentence of your story begins with at night. But you are immediately confused if the correct form is at night or in the night. What do you do? Open Google and search which form is correct? Maybe you are a tad old school and prefer to consult The Bedford Handbook instead?

Don’t do either. 

Solution: Write like a drunk. Keep writing without worrying about sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etcetera. The image of your high school teacher or college professor might pop in your head, ignore them too. Ignore everything you have been told about writing. Just write. 

This way, you will be able to listen to the story that is within you. If you check for errors after every sentence, this will stop your creative juices from flowing smoothly. Pour it all out, without interruption, on a piece of paper or in a word processor. You will need to revise your writing multiple times anyway, so don’t worry about errors in your first draft.

 

3.     Perils of the Second Draft 

Alright! Your first draft is complete. So, let’s clean up the drunken mess right away, right? Wrong!

Solution: Your second draft needs to ensure that your content looks like you intended. You may have digressed from your topic in certain places. You may have omitted materials you meant to include. Revise with content in mind. Naturally, you will notice some glaring mistakes and spelling errors, and it’s fine to correct them along the way, but keep your focus on the content.

 

4.     Third Draft and Beyond: The Great Unknown. 

Start your third draft at the beginning of your story and edit it for flow, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, etcetera. You don’t want to do this by yourself. Now is the time to use Bedford or Google.

For the fourth draft, edit in reverse—starting from the last sentence and ending at the first. This may sound odd, but I have caught many errors this way. The rationale is that when you start with the last sentence and go up to the first, your brain does not have to focus on the flow. Hence, you will naturally concentrate only on a sentence, its form, and whether it can stand independently or not. 

Beyond the fourth draft, it’s a personal choice. Some writers tend to repeat the process from first draft to fourth draft again to further refine and polish their writing, and others don’t. This is where you will need to figure out what works best for you. I finish my first round of editing and let my writing sit for a week or two. Then I will go for a second round of editing. If I am working on a novel, I will do a third round as well.

Remember, the best gauge of whether you are done with your editing is you, yourself. I will get to a point when I have edited my writing so many times that I don’t want to look at it again, but something inside me will complain if my manuscript needs more work. Listen to that voice, don’t ignore it.

After you are satisfied with your edits, I strongly recommend hiring a freelance editor to professionally edit your work. This should absolutely be your last step. You cannot skip your own edits and hire someone else after the first draft. 

You will find a lot of good editors online with excellent work experience and glowing reviews from previous clients. For example, www.upwork.com  hosts a lot of freelancers. (Disclaimer: I am only sharing my experience, Upwork did not pay me to have their name on my blog. Maybe one day they will.) 

 

5.     Showing Off: A Fool’s Temptation. 

Ego lurks under our skin and will knock many times, wanting to come out and declare to the world how great we are, how elegant and eloquent we can sound. Be very careful! There is nothing wrong with eloquence and elegance in itself, only that your story should not sound elegant and eloquent, but be elegant and eloquent. If you are honest and tell your story clearly and concisely, elegance will be visible without even trying.

Also, watch out for the temptation to embellish with fancy words, especially during the editing process when you can substitute your words with better sounding synonyms. If you are a non-native writer, what better way to prove that you have mastered the language than by using big words, right?

Don’t overdo it. Your readers will notice it, just like you notice someone wearing too much makeup. Use words that come naturally to you and your story will feel more authentic. People connect with that. Only those who have orange skin and think everything about them needs to be HUGE and GREAT will put too much attention on fake stories and fake news. Normal human beings don’t.

As you read and write more, you will naturally develop more vocabulary and you can use it then.

Okay! That’s my top five. Now shake off whatever is stopping you from writing and write.

What are your thoughts about the top five? What other challenges do non-native writers face? Please comment below, and don’t forget to Subscribe!